Organic and Sustainable Farmers Can Feed the World
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/01/06/organic-and-sustainable-farmers-can-feed-the-world.aspx
A key question that is often asked about ecological agriculture, including organic agriculture, is whether it can be productive enough to meet the world's food needs. While many agree that ecological agriculture is desirable from an environmental and social point of view, there remain fears that ecological and organic agriculture produce low yields.
Below is a summary by Lim Li Ching, a researcher with Third World Network, of the available evidence to demystify the productivity debate and demonstrate that ecological agriculture is indeed productive, especially so in developing countries.
A recent study examined a global dataset of 293 examples and estimated the average yield ratio (organic : non-organic) of different food categories for the developed and developing world (Badgley et al., 2007). For most of the food categories examined, they found that the average yield ratio was slightly less than 1.0 for studies in the developed world, but more than 1.0 for studies in developing countries.
On average, in developed countries, organic systems produce 92% of the yield produced by conventional agriculture. In developing countries, however, organic systems produce 80% more than conventional farms.
With the average yield ratios, the researchers then modeled the global food supply that could be grown organically on the current agricultural land base. They found that organic methods could hypothetically produce enough food on a global per capita basis to sustain the current human population, and potentially an even larger population, without putting more farmland into production.
Moreover, contrary to fears that there are insufficient quantities of organically acceptable fertilizers, the data suggest that leguminous cover crops could fix enough nitrogen to replace the amount of synthetic fertilizer currently in use.
This model suggests that organic agriculture could potentially provide enough food globally, but without the negative environmental impacts of conventional agriculture.
For the entire article, please click on the Source Link below.
Sources:
* Organic Consumers Association December 19, 2008
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Dr. MercolaDr. Mercola's Comments:
I’m continually amazed that so many policymakers find it hard to believe that organic and sustainable farming can actually produce enough food to feed the world.
If you’re still unconvinced, I highly suggest you read the whole article linked above. As you’ll read, one recent study that examined a global dataset of 293 farming examples found that in developing countries, organic systems produce 80% more than conventional farms. And a review of 286 projects in 57 countries found that farmers who used "resource-conserving" or ecological agriculture had increased agricultural productivity by an average of 79%!
“It is clear that ecological agriculture is productive and has the potential to meet food security needs … Moreover, ecological agricultural approaches allow farmers to improve local food production with low-cost, readily available technologies and inputs, without causing environmental damage,” Lim Li Ching writes.
Really, the question we should be asking ourselves shouldn’t be ‘Can organic or sustainable farming feed the world?’, but ‘How can food production possibly continue as it is?’
The Modern Food System is Crumbling
There are so many problems facing the food system that it’s hard to even pinpoint a place to begin, but I’ll start with factory farms -- the modern world’s “solution” to raising animals for food.
It may surprise you to learn that such farming creates some of the worst pollution in the United States. The Farm Sanctuary points out that farm animals produce 130 times more waste than humans. And agricultural runoff is the primary reason why 60 percent of U.S. rivers and streams are polluted.
Meanwhile, in areas where animal agriculture is most concentrated (Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, Illinois and Indiana round out the top five states with the most factory-farm pollution) bacteria known as pfiesteria is common in waterways. Not only does pfiesteria kill fish, it also causes nausea, memory loss, fatigue and disorientation in people!
Aside from the pollution, factory farms use vast quantities of resources. According to FactoryFarm.org, industrial milking centers that use manure flush cleaning and automatic cow washing systems, go through as much as 150 gallons of water per cow per day.
Energy costs are even steeper.
A 2002 study from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that industrial farms use an average of three calories of energy to create one calorie of food. Grain-fed beef is at the top of the list of offenders, using 35 calories of energy to produce one calorie of food! And this does not even take into account the energy used to process and transport the foods, so the real toll is even larger.
So when I hear someone extolling the virtues of “modern” agriculture and wondering how “organic” or “sustainable” farming could possibly be the solution, I maintain the fact that we have come to accept inefficient, industrial practices, including dousing our food with chemical fertilizers and pesticides, as a viable way to grow food is the real wonder.
And what about genetically modified foods, which were “supposed” to end the global food crisis years ago? Well, lest I open up another can of worms entirely (GM foods are easily one of the biggest threats to both mankind and the earth today) I will suffice to say that GM crops have NOT increased yields as promised.
In fact, research by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho of the Institute of Science in Society (ISIS) found that GM soy decreased yields by up to 20 percent compared with non-GM soy, and up to 100 percent failures of GM cotton have been recorded in India.
It is quite apparent that the food system began its dramatic decline the second the world turned away from the farming practices of our ancestors, and began to attempt to outdo nature with technology. What is needed is clearly a return to nature, and that is what organic and sustainable farming practices are striving to accomplish.
How to Support Organic and Sustainable Farming Movements
If you have the time and the space, I encourage each of you to consider starting your own small-scale “farm” in your backyard. It takes just a small patch of land, or even several large containers, to grow ample amounts of produce for your family.
I also suggest you steer clear of foods that come from factory farms or any large industrial farms, and instead support sustainable agriculture movements in your area. After declining for more than a century, the number of U.S. small farms has increased 20 percent in the past six years. This is in large part a result of the growing demand for locally grown foods, which is slowly but surely shaping the business of food in the United States.
So please realize that each and every one of you can make a HUGE difference.
To find sustainable agriculture movements in your area, from farmer’s markets to food coops and more, please see this comprehensive list.
It is important to understand the impact you have when you spend your money on factory food. Changing your shopping patterns by supporting local agriculture will not only help improve your health, it will also help improve the environment and bring back our rural communities.
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What is Wrong with Environmentalism?
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Trinity Wellness
[ Joined on 12/08 ] [ Posted on December 28, 2008 ]
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The economics of agriculture in the United States have resulted in the loss of over 90% of the family farms in the US. Twenty-five percent of the population used to live on farms. Now it is under 2 million people!
With so much of the arable land in the hands of Agribusiness, and so much of that land depleted by industrial chemical farming, the only short term alternative would be something akin to the World War II era "victory garden".
An organic greenhouse vegetable garden in every backyard for year round production of chemical free plant based nutrition!
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Julieanne
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I don't have the figures, but it seems to me there was less starvation in Africa when there were more small farms growing crops organically. Then we showed them how to be more 'efficient' by using chemical fertilisers, hybrid seeds and other Western practices. This has been a disaster wherever it has happened.
One of the reasons small organic farms in less developed countries can produce higher yields is the diversity of crops they grow together. It may not look as neat and tidy as our methods - crops all growing higgledy piggedly - but it is far more productive.
Many of the original ideas for Permaculture were taken from Third World countries - read Bill Mollison's book 'Permaculture 1'. It is full of practical ideas we could all follow in our own backyards.
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Mercola
DivineLight58
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Mercola
Look at this article.
www.greenpeace.org/.../no-need-for-condoms-ge-corn
renak
[ Joined on 12/08 ] [ Posted on January 1, 2009 ]
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Composting, growing our own fruits & vegetables, raising our own livestock....just unacceptable to most people I know. They would rather take the chance of letting Big Agro poison them. I'm not being sarcastic, that's what I truly believe.
I've produced a large portion of my food for most of my life. My experience is that people don't want any part of growing, raising & processing their own food. However, they are always more than happy to receive the end result. Americans are lazy. Most Americans would let their families starve before the did the back breaking labor associated with raising food.
It will be hard to run out Big Agro. They serve a need, the need of the lazy, cheap American people.
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Mercola
stoic
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Mercola
it's called specialization & division of labor, renak, & it raises productivity & living standards across the board....
Mercola
Brian1
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Mercola
You probably don't need to grow nitrogen fixing crops just to fix the nitrogen and you definitely don't need chemical fertilizers. Liquid human waste should work since it is high in nitrogen. It also reduces the amount of water and other wastes going down the treatment plants. It saves money too.
I tried used it with a bit of diluted sea water(for the trace minerals) and the zucchini and cauliflower leaves were big.
Mercola
ldyfrmr
[ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on January 13, 2009]
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Mercola
I agree to a point but when you show them how to grow salad fixings in tubs then they get excited to see that they can grow something and are willing to expand. We have to train and encourage.
Mercola
Sean Uisce
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Mercola
Brian1, yes liquid human waste is an excellent resource - as is our more solid excreta!
Unfortunately however we have become very 'squeamish' as a society and these methods of closing the circle are not seriously considered. Even amongst (supposedly) holistic and sustainbly-minded people.
But perhaps our societal lethargy regarding using our own wastes to feed the plants that eventually feed us (or feed the animals that feed us) is also subconsciously driven... because if we used our wastes, it wouldn't take long for our toxic habits to come right back at us! And deep-down we all know the consequences of that and so are avoiding moving in that direction?!
Because if everyone switched to composting their body wastes right now, the chemicals they currently have in their bodies from drugs, non-organic food, public tap water, industrial exposure etc would come right back at them. Not only almost immediately (within one or two seasons) but also time and time again!
And of course if they introduced new toxins via their life-choices they would only be introducing more toxins into the circluar system in their own back yard.
So maybe it's in an effort to avoid this reality that society generally uses the (illusory) excuse of hygiene problems to keep going with the idea (also illusory) that as long as we flush it away and someone else somewhere else processes it and throws it in the ocean for us, it'll not come back to haunt us.
Those interested in learning more about the massively health-enhancing option of using human excreta as fertiliser should check out:
www.jenkinspublishing.com/humanure.html
Oh, and compost (whether it includes human waste or not) can also be used to heat water! Simply put your copper cylinder in the middle (1yr old) of three compost heaps and you'll have hot water day and night. Permanently. And as I found out at a friends place as I turned on the tap to wash the dishes, this system can produce water almost hot enough to scald!
Amicus Curiae1
[ Joined on 02/08 ] [ Posted on January 13, 2009 ]
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A rule of thumb for smarter farming is the Law of Return, if you take from the soil either as crop or stock, you Must return to the soil what you took, animal manure should be returned to the soil not stockpiled to leach into waterways, farm plant residue should be grazed, not burnt,. Feeding livestock on grain and chicken ***, with melamine, chemicals, added salt, and processing waste is a crime against the animals, and we are paying for the crime, and our willful ignorance with our health, Cows have 4!! stomach areas to handle tough lignins, they are NOT grain eaters by choice, they do not eat just grass either, a healthy cow will select a range of plants, many we call weeds, for their innate mineral and health giving properties.Pigs that are grain fed, used as a selling price hike, are actually more likely to produce sallow, sour meat. they also need a wide variety of foods, including meat and minerals, they are! omnivorous and will hunt live prey if they can.
no plant or animal waste should be allowed off farm, it should be mulched composted and returned. the only excuse to burn off are serious fungal infections. and RUST can be beaten by changing the crops grown for a few years, and grazing, to change the soil biota back to healthy. i have been a permie for 16 years, it works.
i now assess soil biota, and film live soils, my soil is alive, farm soils are dead, with even the bacteria at minimal levels, breaks my heart, to see what some people bring in for me to test, so much chem contaminants that even fungi cannot grow in it, and they and the bacteria nematodes and others are what give the minerals to the plants, via cation exchange. NPK farming +gmo+chem kills soils. and by association, US!
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notig
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One thing this study doesn't even mention is that if we compost our own waste things would look even better. In Asia.. for centuries they used "nightsoil" which is basically uncomposed humane manure... today we have the ability to compost it and return it to the soil. It Composting is one of the few things we can do that actually enhances and accelerates nature.
The decline of the soil is detrimental to society... in many ways. Not only does it affect yields.. but health... and even psychological health of human kind to an extent.
http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/humanure.html
In my opinion when you go to the store there shouldn't be an "organic" and "conventional" section.. everything should be organic.. and chemical fertilizers should be downright illegal. Along with pesticides.
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Mercola
HansMassage_203
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Mercola
Human wast composting would work but first pharmasutical contamination of the human waste would have to be stopped. It is redely available in my area but it can not be used for food because the composting can not break down many of the pharmasuticals and many of them enter the food chain.
Apoztel
[ Joined on 07/08 ] [ Posted on January 13, 2009 ]
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This user is BELOW novice level and all their comments need to be reviewed with great caution.
Organic and sustainable are both very good things, but we also need to look at the nutritional content of the food. A guy went around to farmers' markets and food stands in the USA and tested their tomatoes for nutritional content. He found that the iron content ranged from 1 ppm to 16,000 ppm. If the soil doesn't have any nutrition in it then neither will the fruits or vegetables that it produces.
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Mercola
Vee.M
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Mercola
Apoztel you have said what so few people realise..even organic food may not contain a good level of nutrition as it is more about not using toxic chemicals..organically farmed soil will be better..but there is more to nutrition than chemical free food..Here in the UK we have the "Good Gardeners Association" which promotes no-dig growing and also conducts tests on the nutritional value of foods grown by different methods in diferent soils...see www.goodgardeners.org....Government here advises us to eat five portions of fruit and veg a day, based on ASSUMED levels of vitamins and minerals in them..but how can you tell if a carrot is bursting with Vit A or has little or none.? or whether there is loads of Vit C in an orange or very little.?..tests have shown a very worrying down trend in the mineral content of soil in the UK since the 2nd World War, so much so that most of the population is deficient in (for example) selenium, which is vital to good health...Soil has been over compacted by large machinery (as will be the case in some parts of the US) and much of it is virtually dead..How can this soil produce healthgiving, vital food.?
Mercola
Julieanne
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Mercola
Vee.M, organic growing is NOT just about pesticide-free food. O. Growers build up their soil with compost, add mineral fertilisers, manures, blood and bone ans seaweed products. They rotate their crops and grow a diversity of plants- no monoculture.
I wish people would emhasise the positive aspects, not just the negative (what the food DOESN'T contain).
mo54
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renak if you think Americans are too lazy to do anything for themselves you have bought into the media. Or you have only been to a city. In the country we work our butts off doing things for ourselves. I can raise crops, any animal you name, put up a barn and lay water pipes. AS well as can the fruits and vegetables, make cheese from fresh milk, make our clothes, and put up fence. My husband can do most of those things and a few more.
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Amicus Curiae1
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hi heather marsh, as a fellow aussie i can advise that the waste from non chem, ie dry composting toilets, can be held in black plastic bins and allowed to reach 50C for a week or longer, as today was 38C , not a problem,
then add some straw or mulched garden waste and let it sit for a couple of weeks, when it cools down, add worms! between the heat, the organic matter adding good bacerial breakdown, and the worms cycling it, it is safe. if in any doubt, do not allow it to be top dressed, always apply to the soil when starting.
for your clay soils you need to add GYPSUM, the straw will not break it up, it will just form tougher possibly anaerobic matter that will not help your plants at all! the gypsum will loosen the bonding in the clay particles, allowing it to become more porous. DO NOT buy ALROC it used to be a safe mineral rock blend, however now the are adding flyash with a cadmium warning of between 2 to 15%
to stoic..specialisation in todays terms usually means big agro, that means lower standards for food and higher unemployment and LOWER standards of living. small scael specialist permaculture will out produce any chemical farmer and give higher yields and better product be it animal or plant.
this year past, chem fertilizer went up from 400avg to 1,100+ per ton, pesticides also sykrocketed. yet markets controlling grains are keeping the price per ton at same to lower than previous harvest paid. fuel also nearly doubled, you tell me how? with that startup cost, and huge seed costs for copyrighted seeds, equipment costs,drought etc, any standard farmer can survive? and our aussie farmers are NOT subsidised in any way, whereas eu and usa and japan china, all subsidise to near 50% of the cost
alternatively, pure rockdusts, animal manures and organic fertilizer( N-Fix, i use), using nonpatented seed, immediately reduces input Please read.. .www.foodproductiondaily.com/.../Wheat-yields-will-be-slashed-as-phosphate-runs-out-warns-scientist
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Heather Marsh
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there are now waste disposal and grey water recycling systems that use earthworms and beetles to process the waste and water into water and compost that is safe to use on gardens (and saves on the costs of nutrients.
eg:www.therenewableenergycentre.co.uk/waste-water-recycling-and-sewage-treatment
As for my home- my husband is now enthusiastically using the 'water' from my worm farm on our plants.
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Mercola
Heather Marsh
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Mercola
It is not legal in Australia to use unprocessed waste on food plants.....although citrus seems to respond well when small boys are toilet training in the back yard.
The cucumbers and tomatoes given the 'worm water' fruited profusely - too profusely. We may have to give some away to neighbours!
I have also asked hubby to obtain some pea straw to dig into our clay soil. Eathworms love it - so the soil gets extra nitrogen and aerated at the same time. I haven't read much about permaculture, but feel that digging in spent legume plants is probably excellent for improving the quality of future crops.
Hopefully some small farmers will return to the old ways of crop rotation.
Mercola
Julieanne
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Mercola
Heather, I would advise you NOT to dig in the pea straw - lay it on top as a mulch instead. It will break down over summer as you water it. Although pea straw contains a certain amount of nitrogen, it will still rob your soil as it breaks down if you dig it in, like any dry material. And laying it on top of the soil is less work!
ExJohnson
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One word of caution, using human manure for your vegetable garden must be done in a safe and systematic way for it to be viable and healthy. Most people have active pathogens in their stool. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it you are building a project and you want a self-composting toilet to help with the garden, I only suggest what other experts do: for the first year, use human manure only on your flowers (a good flower variety brings bees and pest control to your garden, both good). Pathogens are actually quite picky about their environment, much like yeast. A good organic environment doesn't work to well for them, but starting from scatch, it just might take awhile. For those who know this website, think of the gut as a prime example. Yeast actually wouldn't do to well in a healthy gut with healthy food. They need antibiotics to kill off competition, lots of sugar to proliferate, limited fiber so that the food passes slowly, and a pH balance that suits them. The Stad. Amer. Diet provides all these for them, so just take that as advice for your compost. Give it a year to decompose, to 'cook' if you will. Make it as nbatural as possible, feed your compost 'good' things, and down the road, human manure is GREAT for a garden.
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Leo
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Not surprising that Big Agro spends a lot on Big Chemo and, that only developed economies can foot that bill.
Note that Big Agro pays lobbyists, gets subsidies from Big Government, creates Big Farm, exploits the working forces (mostly illegal workers) and, destroys everything in the process. The end product barely resembles Just Food.
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LindaLou_203
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I highly recommend reading 'Sea Energy Agriculture' by Maynard Murray, MD. It explains how all of the earth's elements are in sea water, and when properly diluted, is the perfect fertilizer for all crops. The plants are healthy so the bugs don't eat them (pesticides kill the messengers), have a very long shelf life, and contain all the vitamins, minerals and trace elements they were designed to. When animal feed was grown using sea solid fertilizer, animals were always larger and resistant to disease. Rats fed sea solid fertilized food could be injected with carcino-sarcoma cells and not only survive twice as long as the control group, but a large percentage was sacrificed with no tumor to be found. This being said, one way to ensure a source of super healthy food is to grow your own wheatgrass seaponically - it absorbs about 94 elements besides being rich in vitamins and doesn't require much room or time. It is truly a survival food! It can be dehydrated, ground to a flour, and placed in capsules instead of juicing.
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charli_horse
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So many people are unaware of the plan to further monopolize the world's food. Have any of you heard of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS)? It will require every person who owns any "livestock" animal, whether or not that animal is used for human consumption, to register their "premise" in a privately-held database, microchip each and every animal, and repost every single movement on and off your "premise". If you take your animal to the vet, County Fair, breed show, auction, or simply move it from one pasture to another, you MUST report the movement to the USDA or face a fine of up to $10,000 or MORE depending on your State. Does this sound like a good idea to you? To make things worse, agribusiness does not have to follow the same rules as family farms. They can assign a LOT number to a herd of animals; whereas, a family farmers needs a separate number for each and EVERY one. Sound absurd? For more info, please go to NAISinfoCentral.net and NoNAIS.org Thanks!
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Mercola
northernherbalist
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Mercola
You're right. In VT there's much resistance to the animal microchip ID system. Small farmers say they're much more aware and concerned with their animals' health than any agency ever will be. Plus, migratory animals land or roam on their "premises" and have contact with their animals all the time, yet no one's keeping track of them, so what's the point? To harass small farmers but not huge agri-businesses? Yeah, I think so.
ldyfrmr
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I invite people to attent Bruce Tainio's seminar in February and learn on easy it is to have healthy soil to grow plants in. We had 110 acres grown under his plan and did it all without pesticides and had bumper crops with excellent taste and shelf life. Dr. Arden Anderson will be one of his guest speakers this year also. He is an horticulturist and a Dr of Medicine. Bruce works with farmers around the world.
I also do soil tests and and instruct people how to amend their own soil and grow super crops. Balance the soil and you have no insect or disease problems. Add the beneficial soil organisms and you can negate any harmful chemicals. I have remarkable results using Bruce's products for the past seventeen years.
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HansMassage_203
[ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on January 14, 2009 ]
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An interesting patern has been happening in the greater Seattle area. During the 50's agra business descoverd they could use health and safty regulations to drive the small producer out of business. But over time the population pressure alowed the realestate developers to drive the agra business out. Now the demand for natural food has driven legislation to incourage preservation of farm land and make it easier for small producers. Family farms with just a few cows can get certified to sell raw milk. There is a movment to get USDA certified mobile slaughtering facilities so small producers can sell meat without hauling it 300 miles to a certified slaughter house. Even our small peninsula had a succesfull farmers market last year with a longer season and more variety pland for next year.
So with the requirment to have 5 achers of land to retire out hear in the rurals we may as well be social security suplemental farmers. Keeps us healthy.
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curious7
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I wish I could explain just what this means to us a people. Presently we are treading water. Many well meaning farmers do not rotate their crops, nor allow their land to rest every seventh year. In turn the soil is robbed of the life giving nutrients, we absorb through our food. Then along comes "THE EVIL EMPIRE" Monsanto and tell us science has a better way. Not to mention developement of what was farmland, and the manipulative means in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, used to aquire said lands, in the first place. I care not what the USDA, or the FDA, says about GM foods. It has and will continue to harms us as people, and the wildlife as well. Making us sterile, and in some studies it has been found to harm the chromosones which assign gender.
On the other hand it makes someone rich. GM foods supports the need that some have to control the population growth, and fuel the need for BIG PHARMA, as far as the un-informed are concerned. But take heart, this is AMERICA. As you know America can do no wrong.
